how much lag until a game is unplayable?

Kai Beginner Joined: 04 Mar 2007 Posts: 19

Generally speaking how much lag would there have to be that most on here would consider games unplayable? Also how can you tell which public arenas would give you less lag? Would you see what player is hosting the game and look at the lag between your computer and theirs? Say for instance Player A is hosting the game and the lag between me an him shows up as 50ms would I have to worry about someone else coming in with a 800ms lag? because the time between the host computer and myself is 50ms and the guy with the 800ms would be the one having problems? or would that somehow cause problems for everyone

Kai Spammer Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 8681

I determine a game unplayeble when tehres any lag what so ever. Cause its annoying and hard to deal with.

Team XLink Administrator Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 1702

yeah best strategy is just to make sure the host has a good upload and is somewhat close to you Smile

Kai Spammer Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 1065

Games become unplayable around 200 ms ping times. Bullets don't land, grenade lag happens, people are glitching. Its just bad times all around.

As a general rule I never play a game if the hosts ping is over 120. The lower the hosts ping is to you, the better accuracy you have and the better your weapons will preform. I've played a lot with hosts with 120 ping, and my battle-rifle is never as accurate as when i'm on a host with an 80 ping to me.

Just because its not severe enough to cause visible lag, doesn't mean there isn't any lag at all. Once you play Halo enough you'll be able to notice it. The "host BR and Shotgun" are prime examples of this. On a LAN the host advantage is very very minimal. Almost to a point where it doesn't exist at all. On Kai, its insane sometimes. I like hosting just so I can BR someone from the other side of the map.

All and all its up to everyone to use their brains. When you've got idiots in your arena with 200+ pings, give them the boot. They won't cause the game to lag, but they themselves are lagging and are generally harder to kill because they're glitching all over the place.

A lot of the time too people using wireless will do the samething. Their pings will be fine, but in the game they're glitching like mad. Which is why I always recommend hardwiring your Xbox.

Under optimal positions your 802.11 g is getting 54 mbps, your usb connected modem to PC is getting 12.0 mbps, whilst your good ole cat 5 is getting 100 mbps. This does make a huge difference in how much available bandwidth you've got. Run a bandwidth test with a 12.0 mbps connection and you'll top out at 1.8 mbps.

Anyways thats more info then I imagine anyone wanted.

Kai Admirer Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 447

(LG)-Mortj109- wrote:

I determine a game unplayeble when tehres any lag what so ever. Cause its annoying and hard to deal with.

So you would quit immediately? Nah I think in just about every game of (halo 2) I've played theres been a bit of lag even if just for a second or two....

Unplayable for me is when you do the 'teleporting' or when you die and end up runnign around with no gun. That last one shocked the hell out of me the 1st time it happened Wink

Generally theres enough hosts to choose from to get an unlagable game, thankfully Very Happy

Kai Admirer Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 384

if the host is good enough and gets under 200ms i can play a 1v1 in halo2 on dialup lol anything over 200ms and i start to run around and end up glitching back where i started

Kai Spammer Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 1065

((TRK-Qbert2k)) wrote:

if the host is good enough and gets under 200ms i can play a 1v1 in halo2 on dialup lol anything over 200ms and i start to run around and end up glitching back where i started

And this my friends is the cause of lag. Wink

Kai Admirer Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 384

[TU]JiffyWhip wrote:

((TRK-Qbert2k)) wrote:

if the host is good enough and gets under 200ms i can play a 1v1 in halo2 on dialup lol anything over 200ms and i start to run around and end up glitching back where i started

And this my friends is the cause of lag. Wink

no no no i play in my own arena with ppl i know are a good host and can host my sorry connection, so far its been alot of glitches, i dont go into the halo 2 area to play games unless someone invites me for a minute to chat then i just leave so Razz

Kai Enthusiast Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 268

[TU]JiffyWhip wrote:

Games become unplayable around 200 ms ping times. Bullets don't land, grenade lag happens, people are glitching. Its just bad times all around.

As a general rule I never play a game if the hosts ping is over 120. The lower the hosts ping is to you, the better accuracy you have and the better your weapons will preform. I've played a lot with hosts with 120 ping, and my battle-rifle is never as accurate as when i'm on a host with an 80 ping to me.

Just because its not severe enough to cause visible lag, doesn't mean there isn't any lag at all. Once you play Halo enough you'll be able to notice it. The "host BR and Shotgun" are prime examples of this. On a LAN the host advantage is very very minimal. Almost to a point where it doesn't exist at all. On Kai, its insane sometimes. I like hosting just so I can BR someone from the other side of the map.

All and all its up to everyone to use their brains. When you've got idiots in your arena with 200+ pings, give them the boot. They won't cause the game to lag, but they themselves are lagging and are generally harder to kill because they're glitching all over the place.

A lot of the time too people using wireless will do the samething. Their pings will be fine, but in the game they're glitching like mad. Which is why I always recommend hardwiring your Xbox.

Under optimal positions your 802.11 g is getting 54 mbps, your usb connected modem to PC is getting 12.0 mbps, whilst your good ole cat 5 is getting 100 mbps. This does make a huge difference in how much available bandwidth you've got. Run a bandwidth test with a 12.0 mbps connection and you'll top out at 1.8 mbps.

Anyways thats more info then I imagine anyone wanted.

most people have 6mb up 1mb down and under, and ppl with hight usualy know what there doin, and thats why they have faster internet. so why does it matter if its usb or cat 5 cable?

Kai Admirer Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 384

Snafy...dont u mean 6mb down 1mb up ?

Kai Spammer Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 1065

((TRK-BoHiCa)) wrote:

most people have 6mb up 1mb down and under, and ppl with hight usualy know what there doin, and thats why they have faster internet. so why does it matter if its usb or cat 5 cable?

Well you can test it yourself if you don't believe me. Hook your computer up to your modem with your USB cable only and run a bandwidth test, then hook it up with your cat 5 and check your results. You'll only get 1.8 mb of that 6 mb down with your usb cable. You'll get all 6 mb if you've got the cat 5 hooked in.

I can host 8 using a USB cable, just because it doesn't matter that much on your downspeed when you host. However I always switch back when i'm finished because I want to use all of my bandwidth.

However it does cause a less laggy host when I use a cat 5 just because of what I stated before. A cat 5 hooked up is a load better then your usb. It doesn't leave much for headroom.